Birgitta Kramer
Birgitta Kramer leads the sustainability & work program at the Goldschmeding Foundation. The foundation was initiated in 2015 by Frits Goldschmeding, the founder of Randstad, which is the world’s leading company in HR and staffing services. The Goldschmeding Foundation is a proactive philanthropy foundation and is committed to supporting– through donations, knowledge and its network – projects that demonstrably contribute to lasting change, for an Inclusive Labour Market, Sustainable Work and a Humane Economy.
Birgitta initiates, coordinates, and supports a portfolio of philanthropic investments to guide the just transition towards a sustainable economy and a more sustainable way of working. Projects include (a.o.) the Circular Jobs Initiative, The ExTax’ Project, Sustainability Skills in vocational learning, Circular Economy Indicators Coalition, and Proud2Repair Coalition. In addition, Birgitta coordinates the working group of Dutch funders in sustainability, a group of approximately 20 funders. This group gathers twice a year to share knowledge, communities, lessons learned and ambitions to drive a just transition to a more resilient and sustainable economy.
Throughout her career, Birgitta has held a variety of roles in sustainability, circular economy, impact investment, public-private partnerships, business development, policy development, circular procurement, and corporate reporting environmental accounting. Before her time in the philanthropic sector she worked as a sustainability manager in the Dutch water sector (Vitens 2011-2019). In this role, she was elected by her peers as Sustainability Manager of the year 2015. She worked as a consultant in London and Amsterdam with KPMG (1999-2004), URS (2004-2008) and PwC (2008-2011) in sustainability advisory, internal audit and forensic accounting.
Birgitta has a Master's in Political Science, International Relations (the University of Amsterdam, Political Science 1993-1998). Her thesis, as part of her traineeship with the UNDP (1998) was on measures of (international) corporate social responsibility: the negative or positive contribution of multinational companies to the development of the Human Development Index. After graduating Birgitta was a delegate in the ‘Common Futures Forum’, an initiative of AIESEC and the global conference on intergenerational dialogue (1999) in Washington D.C.